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What is interesting is Boise is very close to an active area. Not saying they are in immediate danger but could be on the edge of a large quake, perhaps like 2020, but could be stronger.
What is interesting is Boise is very close to an active area. Not saying they are in immediate danger but could be on the edge of a large quake, perhaps like 2020, but could be stronger.
Boise is not "very close" to an active area. It's 70 miles away, and USGS hazard maps take into account how the geology affects propagation of shaking.
Boise is in the blue area, which means there's a 2% chance over 50 years of ground acceleration that is 10-14% of g (gravitational acceleration constant). Acceleration and Richter scale are different things, but basically this means Boise is at *very* low risk of a major quake.
Is it possible for a big quake to hit Boise? Sure, anything is possible, and earthquakes can happen anywhere. Perhaps there's an unknown fault near the city capable of generating a large quake. Possible, but unlikely, as the USGS is pretty good at finding major faults. Or perhaps the faults in the Sawtooth Range are capable of producing much larger quakes than previously thought. Again, possible but unlikely based on what we know of the area.
Boise has some of the lowest seismic risk for the entire West Coast and Intermountain West. If you're worried about earthquake risk in Boise you need to move to the parts of the great plains.
Last edited by AnythingOutdoors; 01-06-2022 at 05:22 AM..
How does it feel to go through a 5 or 6 or even 7 earthquake in Boise metro area/Treasure Valley?
No one knows since apparently there has not been any such level of earthquake shaking in recorded history in the Boise area..... AFAIK. As above, it is a 'so far, so good' situation.... there are isolated cases that pop up from time to time where there was no recorded activity before. The earthquake that destroyed Charleston SC around 2 centuries ago was a one-off deal... so far.
And central VA had a mild quake about 11 years back that damaged some buildings (the Louisa County high school was replaced) and damaged the Washington monument and a few other building as far away as Washington DC. Now central VA has a seismic rating 1 step above that of Boise in the International Building Code. But prior to that, the fault was known but not suspected of being very active or active at all. It is near some surface mineral deposits which is a clue to past activity... but no way to know if the activity is still going on until it happens.
Geologists only know that a fault is active if there has been activity in recorded history or there is some potential for activity if the very nearest faults have shown activity; they can also suspect activity from certain minerals being present. That quake near Stanley 2 years ago was centered near some old gold mines. So if you live near one of the known faults near Boise that are so far thought to be inactive but discover gold or uranium in your yard, let the Idaho geologists know!
The earthquake in 2020 was located 70 miles from Boise. If you click on the USGS shake map for that event you'll see that once the quake reached Boise the intensity had dropped to about a 4, so 100 times less intense than the epicenter. A 4-ish earthquake is very minor. In fact, there was almost no damage whatsoever in Boise... apparently someone's mirror fell, LOL
I definitely felt it while sitting in my Boise Bench home. There's at least one cracked wall in every room of the house. The doors are all out of whack now, hard to close both the front and back door.
I guess that's not real damage compared to the quakes on the coast that make bridges tumble down, but it did cause damage.
I definitely felt it while sitting in my Boise Bench home. There's at least one cracked wall in every room of the house. The doors are all out of whack now, hard to close both the front and back door.
I guess that's not real damage compared to the quakes on the coast that make bridges tumble down, but it did cause damage.
Yes.
Even though the quake may have diminished in strength before it rolled through Boise, it was still a major event and felt by many in the valley and it did cause minor damage. There were several aftershocks that were felt as well. This was a major quake and felt all over the West and even into Canada.
A few weeks prior to Idaho's quake, there was a major quake in the Salt Lake area which was also felt up in Idaho.
Even though the quake may have diminished in strength before it rolled through Boise, it was still a major event and felt by many in the valley and it did cause minor damage. There were several aftershocks that were felt as well. This was a major quake and felt all over the West and even into Canada.
A few weeks prior to Idaho's quake, there was a major quake in the Salt Lake area which was also felt up in Idaho.
Indeed, it was a major event for this area. And that's exactly my point. Yes, there was some minor damage. But no buildings were knocked from their foundation. No bridges collapsed, no roads buckled. Power wasn't out for days, or at all. The water system was not disrupted. To my knowledge, no one was injured or killed.
I was about 20 miles from the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake where all of the above happened. That was a major earthquake with major damage. Something similar in Boise is possible, but very unlikely.
I definitely felt it while sitting in my Boise Bench home. There's at least one cracked wall in every room of the house. The doors are all out of whack now, hard to close both the front and back door.
I guess that's not real damage compared to the quakes on the coast that make bridges tumble down, but it did cause damage.
Can you tell the recent poster how it felt? That was one of their questions. And let's assume that was a level 4.5 equivalent in your area, as Anythingoutdoors noted.
Typical stick frame homes have no special resistance to quake damage, as LeeHoLee's info illustrates. FWIW.... The determinant behind how a quake is felt in a specific locale, and the damage it causes to a specific building, is the characteristics of the local ground motion coupled with the specific building's characteristics. The ground motion on the Boise Bench can be very different in the same quake event versus what would measured over on the west side of I-84, where the underlying geology is different. This was seen in one of the SF earthquakes 30 or 40 years ago, where one particular area suffered uniquely severe damage due to ground 'liquifaction'.
So there is no universal answer to feel or damage in any area. It might be felt, and do damage, on the Bench very differently than elsewhere in the Treasure Valley.
For some perspective on other natural events and minor damage like this, and that the person with the question may relate to, being as they are from FL: Strong northeasters and low-end category 1 hurricanes will put cracks in walls. I've personally seen that multiple times on the Outer Banks of NC. Haven't seen doors 'sprung' but it would be expected in older homes there (with less structural reinforcement) and what with the house shaking that goes on in such events. You have no doubt that the wind is whacking the house! You can't stop hurricanes or quakes; most folks just live with it when it is minor.
Earthquakes have been ominously quiet in the entire west recently. I am not making any predictions, but geography suggests many areas are overdue. I would watch LA, SF, Sea who are all in the cusp.
Boise seems some earthquake immune. But other Idaho areas are really not. I think one thing to keep in consideration is all these areas have a history of damaging earthquakes. At some point it will happen again. The best solution is being prepared. Have food and water stored and find a safe spot on your property if possible.
The best solution is being prepared. Have food and water stored and find a safe spot on your property if possible.
This is just good advice in general. Be prepared for disasters and unexpected events. If not earthquakes, there can be major storms or who knows. Especially in ID with it's remoteness, people should have a plan to survive for a couple of weeks.
No need to make it complicated. I prefer the pantry-rotation strategy: we keep the pantry stocked, use older staples first and replace with new. We keep a little extra flour, sugar, pasta, etc. on hand. Our camping gear doubles as survival gear, and we also stock up on a little extra propane for the camp stove and I keep a little extra water treatment drops (for backpacking) as well. If we really need it, I also keep extra freeze-dried backpacking meals on hand... they're good for like 50 yrs and I will eventually use them on backpacking trips anyway.
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